In this comic, Drue and Michael of Eyeball Hurt band together to “look for the famous writer. He is the one who has ejected himself from society.” So far they “have had no success.” A collection of inscrutable tales illustrated by crudely drawn human wanderers, Beyond Trees mines the territory of alienation and loss. I wouldn’t go out on a limb and say this is actually about any one specific thing – the stories are far too vague and pseudo-mystical for that – but I would say the overall impression is one of, yes, loss and abandonment. In one comic, a fine dressing beautiful woman is, inexplicably, afraid to leave the house. In another, a dying woman is assisted by a school teacher. These aren’t so much plots as they are suggestions pointing to possible parallels and parables. At times frustrating, at times engrossing. (Hal Niedzviecki)
comic, Eyeball Hurt and The Medicine, $5, 31 Winter Bay, Brandon, MB, R7B 3H9